Because my kids and I just got back last night from our Spring Break road trip after driving most of the day, yesterday’s and today’s posts have been combined into one post with two limericks. The second one was inspired by being in Colorado, where the legalization of marijuana is still making headlines in the Mile-High City, appropriately enough.

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For Better or Verse

Half a month gone, for better or worse, And I’ve written some limericks diverse – Now it’s St. Patty’s Day And though rhyme doesn’t pay, I just figured that I’d risk a verse.

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Pot of Gold

A leprechaun, wizened and old, Had retirement plans rather bold: Spend what money he’d got All just to grow pot – Now he’s turned all that green into gold. .

In March, my mind turns to Spring Break, St. Patrick’s Day and…limericks.

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There once was a mom with a dog

And two daughters; so goes our prologue.

Swamped with dog and with kids

And a job, she then did

What such moms do: she started a blog.

–Carlotta Stankiewicz

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I’m a big fan of this type of verse; two of my favorite writers, Ogden Nash and Isaac Asimov, were wonderfully skilled in the art of the limerick. And now, because I’ve been slacking in my creation of new Well-Versed Mom content, I’ve challenged myself to post a limerick a day during March — starting today, March 2.

Most will be my own concoctions, some will be literary blasts from the past and some will be guest posts (if you’re interested in contributing, let me know; no previous limerick experience necessary).

Of course, many purveyors of these poems contend that a successful limerick must be naughty in nature.

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The limerick packs laughs anatomical

Into space that is quite economical,

But the good ones I’ve seen

So seldom are clean,

And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

–Anon.

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However, because this is a family-friendly blog, you’ll have to look elsewhere for an appearance by anyone from Nantucket.

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It needn’t have ribaldry’s taint

Or strive to make everyone faint.

There’s a type that’s demure

And perfectly pure,

Though it helps quite a lot if it ain’t.

–Don Marquis

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Before we start, a bit of history: many credit an Englishman, Edward Lear, with the invention of the limerick, though it existed in various forms long before his 1846 Book of Nonsense popularized it.

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The limerick’s birth is unclear;

Its genesis owed much to Lear.

It started as clean,

But soon went obscene,

And this split haunts its later career.

–W. S. Gilbert

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Furthermore, the origin of the name “limerick” is hotly debated among people who hotly debate such things. Some say that the poetic form began with tavern poets in Ireland, home to the city that lends its name to the verse. It also might have come from a 19th-century parlor game that featured a mention of Limerick in its playing. Whatever the case, let’s just be glad the limerick was invented, without which I might not have brought this challenge upon myself…and my readers.